So, the very first, virtual CES has completed day one and, I have to be honest, it wasn't nearly as much fun as actually being there! No doubt, it's really hard to get as excited about things when you can't really see or touch them. The second challenge that I've actually had with CES for a few years is that many times, the show is pretty incremental. In fact, this was was what I said when I reviewed CES in 2019. So we'll see what the breakouts are this year and whether or not it's more incremental than innovative. You can see all of my Tweets about this years CES here and my previous writing about CES here.
You may also want to read this piece, where I talk about some of the things I don't think will be trends, like 8K TV's, drone deliveries and others. It's not that I don't necessarily think these things will have an impact on the world, but I think they will not be big trends in the immediate future.
Now, there's a lot that I don't really cover, like all of the new laptops that were announced, although I personally want one of the new Surface Pro 7 Plus! I don't really talk about connected cars, there are more than enough people already covering them. One thing I'd love to see happen with connected cars is the ability to start planning at home online and then throw my plans to the car. I would also love to see branded drives. Put together some great day drives around key cities and tie it into my GPS. Once we get released from Covid, I'm pretty sure people would even pay for them!
So, what did I see so far today that got me excited?
- Rollable Screens. I'm pretty excited to see a number of companies rolling out (pun intended) rollable screens. For example, TCL has a prototype that can be extended from 6.7-inches to 7.8-inches with a simple tap of the finger, turning it from a smartphone into a tablet. LG also had a rollable screen phone, which might be out sometime this year. Of course, they showed off a rollable TV back in 2019, but for $87,000, it's probably not going to be available at your local Best Buy anytime soon. And here's what I said about it back then:
There's no doubt that this TV was a big hit. And it is both beautiful and cool, no doubt about it! People, myself included, would watch that screen roll up & down over & over again, sort of mesmerized by how it works. The picture quality is obviously excellent and the rolling mechanism worked extremely well. But I wonder how many people really need a TV that rolls away when it's not being watched?
Again, it might be cool in certain retail or OOH environments, I think it ultimately creates limited value for the typical home consumer.
And when LG showed it last year, it was at the end of a bed and the idea was that you would roll it up to watch it and it would be closed when it was down. In my house, that becomes a surface for things and the thought of having to clear it off everytime I wanted to watch TV would make me crazy!
Where I get very excited about this tech, however, is in its use in OOH and retail design. For so many years we've been bound by the rectangular shape of most screens and the fact that the screens are very rigid in that shape. With these new rollable/bendable screens, we'll be able to create all kinds of new environments, like these Illuminariums being done in partnership with Panasonic.
- Touchless Technology. For many years, retailers have been excited about putting lots of touchscreens in the stores/malls and now, thanks to Covid, we don't really want to touch them anymore. Thanks to gesture tracking technologies, we have new ways to engage with a screen. For example, Ultraleap has been doing great work in this area, with both gesture tracking and tactile feedback. We have some demos in the Lab if you want to experience them first-hand.
- Transparent OLED. Yes, these have also been around for a few years, but they do seem to be getting better and more practical today. I am not a fan at all of transparent TV's for the home. Not sure about your house, but I'm not really sure when we last cleaned behind the TV. And I don't really see the utility at home as well, especially for the anticipated price points. But once again, I can see great uses in retail and OOH. As you can see in this demo video, there's a lot that you can do with it in a retail or experiential setting.
I've gotten a few pitches today that certainly come under the "just because you can, should you" category. Like the LiDAR based showerhead, that uses the technology to turn your gestures into temperature control. Yea, I could see lots of challenges when I moving in the shower and those movements translate into temperature changes! I'm also not sure I can be excited about robots that will clean up after me. We just got a robot vacuum and we're starting to get it really set up. But a robot to put my dishes in the dishwasher? Not sure there's a big audience for that. And, sorry for all of the dentists out there, but also not really jammin' on connected tooth brushes, although maybe if I have grandchildren, I'll change my mind.
Tomorrow, I'll review some other categories, like senior tech and 5G, both of which I am pretty excited about. And I'll keep tweeting tomorrow with any announcements that happen!
Some additional CES reading: